"Call to Me, and I will answer you..." (Jeremiah 33:3).  What a blessing is prayer!  Through prayer God has enabled us to be able to talk directly to Him, to personally present to Him all of our needs, concerns, thoughts, and fears.  He has promised us that, because of His unlimited power, our prayers can make a difference for good, they change things (James 5:16).  But, the scriptures are clear that there are people to whose prayers God will not listen.  Why would God not listen to somebody's prayers?

   “Call to me, and I will answer you…” ( Jer. 33:3 ).  What a blessing is prayer!  Through prayer God has enabled us to be able to talk directly to Him, to personally present to Him all of our needs, concerns, thoughts and fears.  He has promised us that, because of His unlimited power, our prayers can make a difference for good, they change things ( Jas. 5:16 ).  But, the scriptures are clear that there are people to whose prayers God will not listen.   Why would God not listen to somebody’s prayers?

  Hello, my name is Steve Higginbotham and I am an impulse buyer. There, I feel better now. But it's true, I'm the kind of guy for which they make commercials and design eye-catching packaging. When I go shopping, if I see something on the shelf I like, I put it in the buggy. Consequently, my children never miss an opportunity to go shopping with me, and my wife rarely sends me.   But this "impulse buying" has sometimes led to some very poor purchases. You see, I don't check the price like I should, and it's not until I'm at the checkout that I realize how expensive some items are. Well, at this point, I'm too embarrassed to say anything. I don't want to hold people up in the line behind me by putting it back. So I proceed with the purchase, that has now lost its luster.   Now if I can change subjects, is that not precisely why we choose to sin? Impulse. If we fully comprehended the cost before the transaction was made, we wouldn't make it. But we go on our impulse. Immediate gratification. And we don't worry about the price until we get to the checkout.   Well friends, let me remind you that there will be a "checkout" some day, and we will have to pay for our "purchases." Therefore, I would encourage you, as well as myself, to learn self-discipline, and make life-choices based, not upon today, but upon eternity.

  How does God answer prayer?  We know how we want God to answer our prayers.  We want Him to grant our requests, whatever they might be.  We want God to answer “Yes!” to our prayers.  God always answers the prayers of the righteous ( Jer. 33:3 ), but anyone who prays knows that His answer is not always “yes.”